Love or Life?
by magic.chapters
Summary: Love or Life? This is the story of a witch and wizard and how their love is kindled amidst a raging war. For some it could perhaps have ended differently. But it all depends of how this one simple question is answered – and who chooses what answer. Do you choose love, or do you choose life?
1. Chapter 1

The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

But how does one destroy death?

Is living forever defined as the conquering of death? No, because death is inevitable; it will happen eventually. One can prolong life in extraordinary measures, but never can they live forever, no matter how long they extend their days. Because on Earth, forever does not exist.

So how does one overcome the last enemy that is death?

When one accepts their death, and embraces it rather than fears it, death is no longer their enemy. By being unafraid of leaving the world is defying death and making peace with it.

This is the story of a witch and wizard who destroy death as their enemy through a different kind of magic. It has nothing to do with spells or charms or magical creatures. This magic is not born from a wand core nor does it involve flashes of green or red. It cannot be brewed or grown or cast.

This magic is called love.

(L&J)

 _"How come she married him?" asked Harry miserably. "She hated him!"_

(L&J)

The sky was a swirling blanket of black and dark blues, with stars that twinkled like glitter across it. The Hogwarts castle stood in all it's grand glory, the lights from within the many windows making it appear to be glowing golden. The lake was calmly serene, the golden reflection of the castle wavering on its surface.

Except Lily couldn't see any of this. The sky was blocked from her view by the canopy of the forest around her and the castle and the lake were probably a mile away. The welcoming feast had finished a few hours beforehand and while most students were sleeping peacefully in their four-poster beds for the first time in the new school year, she was out-of-bounds after curfew during her first night as Head girl. The further she travelled into the forest, the colder she seemed to get which she found peculiar, not to mention creepy. All of her companions' wands were lit, making their surroundings eerily visible.

"You guys," said Marlene exasperatedly for the umpteenth time. "I still think this is pointless. I mean, if you can't see them then we might have come across them already and we just don't know. Can't we just ask Hagrid tomorrow?"

Dorcas rolled her eyes and waved the large bloody hunk of raw meat in front of Marlene and Lily's faces.

"See this?" she said pointedly. Lily nodded hastily and stepped backwards. Not only could she see it, but she could smell it.

"It's dragon meat. Threstrals _love_ raw meat. As long as we keep walking, when we become even remotely close they will smell it and I will _feel_ them come close even if I can't see it. But Alice and I will be able to," she said confidently, and spun around to keep walking, splattering Marlene in the face with droplets of blood.

"Where the _bloody hell_ did you get dragon meat from?" said Marlene in disbelief.

"Hagrid," said Alice with a wink, and turned to follow Dorcas. Four pairs of footsteps crunched in the fallen leaves and dried debris.

"Why didn't you just ask Hagrid if you could see them then?" cried Marlene in frustrated annoyance and grudgingly followed them. Lily laughed and fell into step beside her.

Over the summer holidays, Alice and Dorcas had witnessed what they described as a "vicious, brutal murder of a cow". It had been Dorcas' muggle neighbours slaughtering it on their family farm, but the girl's insisted that it counted as seeing someone die and that they would be able to see Threstrals now. Alas, they were now walking through the forbidden forest close to midnight in the pitch black with a large lump of meat that Lily was sure not only Threstrals would be attracted to.

Yes, they definitely had had smarter plans than this in the past.

"Is no one else freezing cold right now?" asked Marlene with a shiver. Lily nodded frantically, her arms wrapped tightly around herself.

"AHH!" came Alice's shriek from ahead of them.

She was jumping around and waving her arms in front of her while simultaneously trying to pull a long, silvery substance off her that was clinging to her face and torso. Dorcas was doubled up in laughter beside her.

"Yuck, yuck, yuck," said Alice in a disgusted moan, her hands grabbing at her face to rid herself of the stringy substance which was still sticking to her.

"Is that a spider web?" said Lily, quickly helping Alice pull it from her hair.

Marlene giggled. Dorcas was now lying on the ground in a fit of silent laughter, her bloody clump lying beside her.

"Would have had to be a hella big spider to make that," muttered Alice, making a face as Lily pulled it off one of her eyelashes.

Dorcas sat up quickly. "What did you say?"

"I said 'what a wonderful evening stroll this has turned out to be, thanks to you convincing me that seeing a bloody cow-'"

"No, seriously," said Dorcas, standing up and grabbing the dragon meat off the ground.

"It would have been a hella big spider that made this," repeated Alice.

Dorcas swore and started pushing them back into the direction they had come from.

"What are you doing, Dorcas?" asked Marlene with a curious look. "I thought we still, and I quote you, 'had hours and hours to look because our first class starts at nine and we can skip breakfast'."

"I was talking to Hagrid a while back… in our textbook it says 5 Xs… it must be in this part of the- well fuck," she finished and pulled out her wand, pointing it at something behind Lily's shoulder.

Lily followed her gaze and bit back a scream. Standing barely 15 feet from where she was stood, was a massive, hairy black spider. It had eight beady eyes and pincers that clicked threateningly as it eyed them quickly before quickly advancing. It wasn't anywhere near the size of regular garden spiders, or even tarantulas. It was more the size of a small elephant.

It scuttled in a terrifying manner towards Dorcas, who was closest and picked her up with its front legs before she could think of a spell to aim at it. She swore loudly as it grasped her, and Lily heard her wand clatter onto a part of rocky ground below her.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit," Dorcas was cursing with her eyes squeezed tightly shut, as though determined not to look at its razor-sharp pincers or abundance of eyes.

Lily inwardly groaned as she could vaguely make out the dark shapes of more acromantulas scuttling towards them. She aimed a stunning spell at the spider holding Dorcas, at the same time that Marlene did, but it clearly had no effect. Lily reasoned that they were so large and contained so much magic already that their bodies simply absorbed petty spells like that.

Dorcas had opened her eyes determinedly and swore again as she saw the approaching acromantulas. The spider which had a firm hold on her was clicking its pincers seemingly towards its fellow companions.

"Get the hell out of here," screamed Dorcas to the other three girls.

"Shut the _hell_ up Dorcas," came Marlene and Alice's simultaneous reply.

Blond hair flying, Marlene was firing jinx after jinx and curse after curse at the acromantula that was holding Dorcas, ignoring the looming threat of the others. Alice's face was contorted into a concentrated frown and her light green eyes were flickering between the acromantulas, Dorcas, the tree tops and the ground; Lily could tell she was doing some quick thinking in order to try and get them all out alive.

Just as the closest acromantula advanced on Marlene, who stumbled backwards in a bid to escape it while trying to help Dorcas, Lily was struck with a sudden bolt of inspiration.

"Expelliarmus!" she shouted at Dorcas' captor and Dorcas fell to the ground with a light thud. "Conjuntivis!" she shouted, aiming at it's eyes and praying that she hit her target.

The flash of pink hit the side of its head and seemed to fade slowly into its thick hair. Now aggravated, it scuttled forwards towards Lily, clicking its pincers menacingly.

She dove behind a tree, dimly aware of her friends screaming her name. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, composing herself, and when the clicking pincers seemed only feet away, she ducked out from behind the tree and shouted, "Conjunctivis!"

This time, at a shorter distance, the curse hit its target. The acromantula scurried to the left and began spinning around madly, losing its balance every now and then and falling sideways.

Following Lily's lead, she heard multiple cries of "Conjuntivis" from Marlene and Alice. She hurried towards them in time to see the two other spiders scuttle blindly around. Dorcas grabbed her wand from the ground where it had fallen.

Lily could tell that the curse was beginning to wear off from the acromantulas, as they were stumbling less with every passing moment. "Run!" she shouted, and the others didn't need telling twice.

They turned heel and sprinted together in the direction that they had come in. They didn't stop running until they had reached the edge of the forest and the grand Hogwarts castle was glowing within their view. Alice and Marlene had to wait several moments for Dorcas and Lily to catch up, both of whom were on the less fit side of the scale. Though both Marlene and Dorcas had a good three years of Quidditch under their belts, and both could endure a four-hour, hard-core, gruelling training session, Dorcas loathed running.

They walked back up through the deserted corridors to Gryffindor tower in a state of mild shock, not speaking a word until they entered their dormitory. Their fifth roommate, Sierra McEvoy, was fast asleep in her four-poster bed, which was slightly secluded from the others. She was facing the wall in slumber, so all Lily could see was her shoulder length, blond hair sprawled on her pillow.

Lily flopped back down on her bed, then sat up again and looked at her best friends. They were all sitting on their beds, too, gazing around at each other. And then, as if on cue, they all burst out laughing. Alice was sitting on the edge of her bed with her head in her hands, shaking her head and her body trembling with disbelieving laughter. Marlene had slid onto the floor, her head tipped back and laughing out loud and Dorcas was repeatedly banging her head on the post of her bed. Why, Lily wasn't sure. From the looks of Dorcas gasping for breath from laughter, possibly pure mirth and hilarity.

Lily herself was rolling back on her bed in a fit of giggles. If only someone had walked in, they would have thought that each and every one of them was mad. She glanced up and looked at her roommates again, gazing at each one in turn.

Marlene McKinnon, her closest friend in the world, with deep ocean blue eyes and wavy blond hair was the most fun-loving person she knew. She never took life seriously and that may have had something to do with being related to James Potter - cousins, or second cousins. She was loud, always joking, proud, fiercely protective of her friends and not caring what anyone thought of her. And of course, brave.

Then there was Dorcas. That dark-haired muggle-born girl who exasperated teachers beyond belief. Don't call her Dorky or it will probably be the last word you ever speak. Strangers always considered Marlene and Dorcas to be two peas in a pod. They couldn't be more mistaken. While both girls were loud, sarcastic and did whatever they wanted without a second thought of what others might think, Dorcas took things seriously. She often took the bait that the Slytherins consistently fed to her and would always charge head first into a battle. If you called her a mudblood, she would curse you so that walking in a straight line was difficult; if you called her friend a mudlbood, she would curse you back into the fourteenth century.

Alice Prewett was the last, but in no means the least, of Lily's best friends. With her dirty blond hair and light green eyes that were perhaps a shade away from blue, Alice was the quietest of the group. Lily thought that Alice and Dorcas' friendship was the prime example of how opposites attract. Though often the quietest, Alice was probably the most confident but also the most intuitive and compassionate. Rather than say what comes to mind, Alice observed conversations with people and her observance of the world was probably why no one had ever won an argument with Alice Pretwett; she had a way with words and could always describe exactly what was going on in her mind.

Though the four girls were all extremely close, it was always Marlene and Lily, and Alice and Dorcas who were that tiny margin closer.

"Lilyyyy, you're doing it again," said Marlene in a sing-song voice.

Lily blinked and it was as though her mind was resurfacing from a lake of thoughts and into the air of reality.

"What?" she asked.

"Zoning out and getting this dreamy faraway look on you're face," said Alice.

"Imagining Potter being decapitated again?" said Dorcas with a knowing nod. James Potter, who smoked too much, had probably snogged half of the female population at Hogwarts and hexed anyone who simply annoyed him just to flaunt that he was too cool to follow rules.

"No!' said Lily. "And how many times do I have to say, it was just a strange dream in our fifth year-"

"Do any of you bloody well mind?" came a voice from the other side of the room. It was Sierra McEvoy. She was standing in her nightie with her arms crossed, in front of the girls.

"Sorry Sierra," said Alice sincerely, looking guilty.

"Yeah, sorry McEvoy," said Dorcas breezily. "Sorry that we woke you up. Really and truly. Swear on Merlin's grave."

Sierra McEvoy looked surprised. She raised an eyebrow. "Oh really?"

"Yep," said Dorcas sweetly. This was very uncharacteristic for Dorcas. "After all, we have to look at you every day so we want you to get all the beauty sleep you can." Ah, there it was.

Sierra's eyes narrowed. She was the odd one out from the Gryffindor seventh year girls. In first year, she had started out friendly enough but soon the four girls grew sick of her cruel constant remarks at people. By second year, she was hanging out with the Ravenclaws and by third year she had turned to the Slytherins. She had not started out caring about blood status, but Lily gathered that the other nasty Slytherin girls she had taken a liking to had influenced this. Also, Lily suspected that herself and Dorcas may have also been a contributing factor.

Sierra was basically a darker version of Dorcas. Both were outgoing and opinionated. Though while Dorcas honoured equality and integrity, Sierra believed in superiority and ambition and wasn't afraid to be nasty. It was natural that their personalities would clash.

Then there was Lily. For some reason, around halfway through their second year, Sierra had begun hating Lily. Lily suspected that it had something to do with her calling Sierra out on her cruelty. Marlene, Alice and Dorcas were convinced that Sierra was jealous of Lily. They claimed that she was intelligent, pretty, kind and everyone respected her, and that Sierra was envious of that. Lily very much doubted that.

So thus sparked her dislike of muggle-borns and her inclination to befriend some Slytherin girls – all pureblood of course. Lily wasn't sure whether Sierra's heart was as fully into the prejudice as she claimed, not like Bellatrix Black or Aisha Selwyn whom Sierra was rarely seen without.

"Seeing you get back here past midnight explains a lot about your face and how it correlates with your lack of beauty sleep," shot back Sierra with a scowl.

"We're really sorry for waking you up Sierra," interrupted Lily as Dorcas opened her mouth to retort. "We were really selfish to not think of you sleeping. Well, erm, goodnight then."

Sierra glared at her. "You think you're so noble, little miss perfect," she said and turned around to walk back to her bed. But she wasn't quite out of earshot when Lily heard her mutter, "fucking mudbloods."

Unfortunately, Dorcas heard as well.

"Ever fucking Merlin, repeat that why don't you?!" she roared and made a grab for her wand. Marlene, who was on the ground beside Dorcas' bedside table quickly snatched it up off it and held it away from her.

Lily breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank Merlin," she murmured. "Dorcas, it's- _no listen Dorcas_ , it's not worth it. Who cares what she says? I don't care that I'm muggleborn and I know that you don't, so why does it matter if some stupid prat like Sierra calls us some petty name for muggleborn. It's only offensive if we let it offend us. Okay Dorcas? _Dorcas_?"

"I hate that stupid fucking bitch," muttered Dorcas grumpily, slumping back onto her pillows. "'Night you lot."

Marlene cautiously returned the wand to the bedside table before climbing into her bed.

Lily flicked her wand and the bedside lamps all turned off. She was just dozing off into the blissful, relieving obliviousness of sleep when there was a purple flash that came from Sierras bed. Sierra shrieked and there was a thud as she tumbled out of bed; Lily heard a soft, satisfied laugh from one of the four-posters.

"Dorcas!" everyone groaned.

(L&J)

"Morning Lads!" came a booming voice, breaking easily into James Potter's dream, like a quaffle soaring through mist.

"Shut up, Padfoot," he grumbled into his pillow. Only, it sounded more like "Shdup Pafud".

"Stop throwing pillows at me Remus," came Sirius Black's brisk reply. "Now, listen up you lot. This is our last year at Hogwarts! I have to congratulate us all on our start of term prank yesterday evening; it really was quite genius if you ask me-"

"No one asked you, Padfoot," said Peter Pettigrew sleepily. "We still had an extra fifteen minutes of sleep left."

"Whatever you say, Pete," continued Sirius dismissively. "So, for the first Quidditch game – Slytherin versus Hufflepuff – I say we put a charm on the door to the pitch from the Slytherin change rooms so that just as they walk out, their robes will turn purple or some other colour. And we could lock Mrs Norris-"

But he was interrupted by a loud snore. He turned his head and looked at Remus Lupin with a frown, who had promptly fallen asleep again.

"Feeling the love, aren't I Moony," he said huffily. "Fine, if you lot aren't going to take our pranks seriously then I won't bother to come up with any brilliant ideas. We can just have a nice, long, boring, prank-free, homework-filled-"

"Merlin above Padfoot, it's not that we don't want to hear them. But I thought we figured out three weeks into our first year that depriving Moony from any extra sleep isn't a bright idea," said James, sitting up and running a hand through his tousled hair tiredly. He picked up his glasses from his bedside table and shoved them on his face.

"Right," said Sirius resentfully. He paused, then added hopefully, "Want to go get breakfast?"

James rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I have some stupid meeting with Dumbledore and Evans before classes anyway. Give me a minute," he said, pulling a shirt over his head and walking to the bathroom.

Sirius' eyes lit up mischievously. Ever since finding out James had been christened Head boy, making fun of his best mate had been his favourite pastime.

"Sure thing! It'll give me a moment to lay out the red carpet down the stairwell, for Ye Headboyship," he called. He ducked the shoe James threw at him and laughed out loud.

(L&J)

"Potter?" came a weary voice from behind James and someone lightly tapped him on the shoulder. He knew it was Lily Evans, because that was certainly her voice and also their meeting started in about ten minutes. Remus and Peter had come to join him and Sirius, and the four boys were in the middle of shooting grapes at each other across the platters of food at the Gryffindor table.

He sighed inwardly and turned around. "Yes, I know. It starts in ten minutes," he said bluntly. "It doesn't take ten minutes to walk to Dumbledore's office, Merlin. Besides, when are you one to be on time?"

Lily looked surprised. "I never _mean_ to be late!" she said indignantly. "And I'm not always late! Sometimes I get distracted but – will you bugger off Black?" she snapped at Sirius, who snorted at her previous words. "I'm not! But that's not why I came here. Someone's done a charm that's stopping people from being able to exit the Great Hall and apparently, it's been there a while. People can get in, but not out. I don't suppose you lot know anything about it?"

She was looking suspiciously at the marauders, specifically James and Sirius. They were genuinely surprised. James opened his mouth to retort but Sirius spoke first.

"No, we didn't. So bugger off Evans. I'm about to slaughter Pete here," he said. Peter had made a barricade out of toast, and Sirius had spent the last few minutes determinedly trying to knock it down with grapes. Peter was looking rather smug.

Lily looked annoyed. "Fine, but I have to bugger off with Potter, if you lot don't mind. Actually, scratch that. I don't care if you do or don't mind," she said, grabbing James' arm and pulling him out of his seat.

"But it doesn't start for another ten minutes! I told you-"

"Not that! I need help getting rid of the barricade at the doors to the entrance hall, and seeing as you're head boy and I'm head girl…" she said, pulling him towards the giant doors.

"Why don't you ask a teacher?"

"Because it's just some inconvenient prank someone has devised, meaning it should be simple enough to get rid of. I tried a few charms, like _Priori Incantatem_ and-"

But whatever other spells Lily had tried to reverse the blockade, James didn't hear.

The entire Great Hall had suddenly plunged into pitch black darkness.

Lily cut herself short as screams echoed around the Great Hall. Even the light that would usually shine through the windows seemed to be extinguished somehow.

He reached for his wand and said, "Lumos," but nothing happened. He heard Lily do the same from somewhere beside him but clearly to no prevail. He tried to conjure a candle that he could perhaps magically light to see what the hell was going on, but his wand seemed to be broken. He could make out Lily trying to summon a torch from the Entrance Hall but it was no use.

He had never been in a situation where he couldn't use magic before. Sure, he had been disarmed occasionally or had forgotten his wand. But at least then, he knew what he had to do: find his wand so he could use magic. Now, he had his wand, but his magic didn't seem to be working and he couldn't see anything to get a grasp of the situation.

"Lily?" he said, reaching his arm out in front of him to check that she was still there.

"I'm here," she answered, somewhere to his right. He felt her hand clasp around his arm, as though making sure she didn't lose him.

That was when he heard the voice. It was high and cold, and spoke with almost a hiss. It reverberated off the walls and rang in his ears, clearly magically amplified.

"Students and teachers of Hogwarts: I am speaking to you... This year, your Headmaster and the Ministry of Magic have denied our request of purifying this school. They believe mudbloods should be allowed to steal our magic. They believe blood-traitors and half-breeds have the right to be educated on the magical arts. Albus Dumbledore and the Ministry of Magic refused our many requests, and as a result we will no longer play… nicely.

For every month you continue allowing mudbloods and half-breeds to learn the secrets of our magic, there will be consequences. As each month progresses, the consequences will become worse. By the time the tenth month is up, and the Ministry of Magic has not complied or Albus Dumbledore has not resigned, then destruction so terrible will be brought upon Hogwarts that it will be left in an irreversible state of devastation.

You have been warned."

The silence that followed was deafening. No one moved and no one spoke.

And then people were screaming and crying and panicked conversations had broken out. The darkness subsided, and James could see Lily beside him looking pale. At the same time, they both became aware of Lily's continued hold on his arm and James glanced at her curiously; she quickly let go. They were near the long Slytherin table now, and a small boy who was sitting on the very end was crying. Lily rushed over to him, knelt down next to him and took his hand, trying to comfort him.

"Hey, hey," she said softly, looking at him concernedly. "It's okay. The teachers will sort this out in no time."

"M-my friend, Bianca, is in H-hufflepuff and sh-she's a m-muggleborn. Will she get hurt? Will she have to l-leave the school?" he asked through his tears, staring up at Lily.

James saw Lily close her eyes briefly in a pained sort of way before quickly reopening them and smiling at the boy. "I'm sure she'll be fine. This is all just silly nonsense. Everything will turn out okay in the end, I promise," she said and pulled him into a hug.

When she left the boy and returned to James, he saw that her eyes were lined with a distinct wetness. He felt a sudden urge to hug her, and comfort her the way she had comforted the small Slytherin boy, but he figured that wouldn't go down too well.

"Do you really think the teachers will sort it out in no time?" James couldn't resist asking.

"Of course not," she said quietly, her eyes staring at the ground in a distant way.

"So you lied to him?" If any time James had ever wanted to punch himself in the face, it was now. He didn't think he could have chosen anything worse to say.

Lily's head suddenly snapped up and she glared at him. "What was I supposed to say? No, things are really shitty in the real world at the moment because there's a maniac killer who wants to do in all of your friends. That friend, Bianca, will probably be six feet under before she can graduate from Hogwarts thanks to said psychopath."

James winced, but didn't say anything. Lily was moving towards the teachers table where there was an unusual amount of activity.

"One more thing," said James cautiously, following her. "Do you really believe that everything will turn out okay in the end?"

"Yes."

* * *

Author's note:

This is my first fanfiction, and I hope you like it! I will be updating every few weeks. Please review if you read this chapter and let me know if you have any tips of feedback or suggestions!


	2. Chapter 2

The end of their first day of classes was a massive relief for James. Classes had resumed as per usual yet there was definitely a nervous edge to the atmosphere that day. His meeting with Dumbledore and Lily had been postponed to their lunch hour, and it more or less involved Dumbledore lecturing them about their duties as Heads and warning them about the threats from earlier that morning.

"As I am sure you have suspected, that was the voice of Lord Voldemort this morning," he had told them, without any trace of the usual twinkle in his piercing blue eyes. "This year will not be an easy one. I assure you that I have carefully thought over whether or not I should resign, for the sake of our students and teachers."

Lily and James had both looked alarmed at this.

"Sir, you can't-"

"Merlin, you're not going to-?"

But Dumbledore had silenced them with one glance of his bright blue eyes. "I will not, however, be resigning and the Ministry of Magic agrees with my decision. For one, all of the muggle-borns and students with… conditions would certainly be either killed or kidnapped if Voldemort were to have control of Hogwarts. He would not merely let them pack their bags and return to their muggle homes."

James glanced at Lily. Her expression was that of disgust.

"Second, I am hardly convinced that Hogwarts would continue to run as it always has. Voldemort and his Death Eaters would devise a new and darker curriculum and educate students from a young age to discriminate against those who are not purebloods."

He paused. "I chose you both as Head boy and girl because this will be darkest year that Hogwarts has ever seen, and I believe that you both have a certain spirit that burns brightly inside both of you. I am convinced that we need this spirit to remind us of light in these dark times. I am certain that times will become difficult and that many among us will break underneath the pressure. Many within these castle walls who do not possess this spirit will lose sight of the light and become immersed in the darkness. They will forget that they do have something worth fighting for.

I can rest assured that the same thing will not happen to you."

(L&J)

The two heads walked in silence to their last class of the day, Defence Against the Dart Arts. Lily appeared to be deep in thought; James was wondering whether or not it was true that Sirius _had_ snogged Dana Midgeon behind the greenhouses. He had overheard her telling her friends in the hallway earlier in the day, but he was positive that Sirius wouldn't have because, well, it was _Dana Midgeon_ for Merlin's sake.

"I can't stand it," said Lily suddenly, stopping dead in the middle of the hallway and throwing her hands up in exasperation. "All I can think about is the stupid threat from this morning! Did you know people have begun calling it 'the ten consequences'?"

"Erm," said James, caught off guard.

"Well they have. And look at us! We've been alone for almost an hour and we're not even bickering because we're so caught up in it all!" said Lily wildly.

"Um, would you prefer it if we were bickering?" said James uncertainly, hastily shoving all thoughts of Sirius and Dana Midgeon out of his mind.

Lily threw him a dirty look. "Of course not. But…" she paused. "Do you think someone at Hogwarts is helping Voldemort?"

"What?" said James, surprised.

Lily looked at her feet. "I mean, the voice said that there will be consequences every month. How can he expect to do that without inside help?"

James considered her words. "That… that makes sense," he said slowly.

Lily looked up at him. "Dumbledore thinks so too."

"I – what?" he said.

"Did you see him straight after the threat? It looked like he was, like, scrutinizing all of the teachers, especially the new Defence teacher. And his eyes kept looking towards the Slytherin table. Notice a few of them didn't seem so surprised about the threat?" she prompted.

"No."

"Observant thing you are, aren't you?"

"Well please excuse me for not noticing the direction that one of our teachers was looking," snapped James. "You see, I was a bit preoccupied with the psychopath murderer that seemed to be speaking in the same bloody room that I was in."

"I happened to be in the same-" she trailed off, her eyes moving curiously to something over James' shoulder. Then she screamed, grabbing his arm and spinning him around.

The hallway seemed to have suddenly darkened a great deal. Gliding slightly above the ground was a black creature, rather like a dementor, although instead of being upright it was more flat. Rather like a thick, black stingray in appearance, the creature had what seemed like black tattered shreds of material flowing behind it as it approached the pair. The closer it came, the darker the corridor around them seemed to get. The torches around them dimmed increasingly.

James pulled his wand out and Lily fumbled in her pockets for her robes.

"What the _fuck_ is that?" he said, holding his wand towards it and attempting to stun it. It seemed to just absorb the spell, and continued moving towards them at a quicker rate. Without turning their backs on it, they began backing away.

"It-It's a lethifold," said Lily in a terrified voice as she tried to point her wand at it, but dropped it instead. Had James been in a different situation, he would have stopped and stared at her. Lily Evans had never, ever even shown the slightest ounce of being scared. Nervous, yes, but frightened enough to drop her wand? No.

She tried to move forward to grab her wand, but James kept pulling her back. The lethifold was advancing alarmingly and there was no way he was letting her close to it.

"What the fuck is a lethifold?" asked James, trying to slow it down with a spell but still no use.

"It-It kills people. Mostly when they're sleeping, so you're completely helpless against it. The thicker it is, the more people it has killed. Then it-it digests you and, oh its awful," said Lily, looking completely terrified. "I've never seen a real one, but I've read all about them."

"How do you get rid of them?" asked James, raising his voice against the noise of the constant spells he was sending at the strange creature. The hallway was becoming darker by the second.

"I don't- no, wait. The Patronus Charm!"

"You couldn't have said that sooner?" he said furiously, conjuring the happiest moment he could in his mind.

"You can-?" began Lily in astonishment.

"Expecto Patronum!" he shouted. A large, silver stag erupted from the tip of his wand and lingered for a moment before charging at the lethifold. The lethifold was knocked backwards and lay sprawled on the ground. Despite it's lack of distinguishable face, James had a weird feeling that it was looking confused.

Apparently, so did Lily.

"The Patronus Charm should- but not- James, is that a boggart?" she asked in a small voice.

Then, before James could respond, she grabbed his wand from his hand and shouted, "Riddikulus!"

With a _pop_ the lethifold turned into a red Gryffindor school robe. Lily grinned. "Riddikulus!"

And it was gone. James stared at the spot where it had vanished and saw that slightly to the left of where it had been was Lily's wand. He strode forwards and picked it up before walking slowly back and handing it to Lily and exchanging it for his own.

"That was one nasty bogg- Lily?" he said in surprise. Lily had quietly sunk to her knees, still staring at the place where the boggart had disappeared. James saw that her lip was trembling.

"Er, are you okay?" he asked, kneeling beside her awkwardly.

"It's worse, isn't it? In our second year when we had to face our biggest fear from the trunk, we knew that it wasn't real. But it's so much worse when you think your biggest fear has come true and it's really there. It's harder to face your biggest fear if you know it's real," she said quietly.

"I suppose it would be," James murmured, unsure of what to say.

Lily exhaled and quickly got to her feet, flashing James a bright smile as he stood up as well.

"Well, I suppose I'm all warmed up for Defence now!" she said cheerfully and continued walking along the hallway to their next class as if nothing had happened. James stared after her.

(L&J)

"Good afternoon everyone. I am your new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Lacount. It has been a rather interesting first few days this year, I must say. However, we mustn't let that deter us from our learning," said the man standing in front of the teacher's desk. He was tall with a short moustache and dark hair which had been slicked back with gel.

He heard Remus mutter something along the lines of 'adult Hitler' to Sirius and they both cracked up in silent fits of laughter. He didn't know what 'adult Hitler' was, but he figured it must be some muggle concept. Sirius had taken Muggle Studies as a subject in third and fourth year to spite his parents and Remus was a half-blood. James glanced at Peter, who shrugged at him.

"Today, we will be discussing fiendfyre and possible defences against it, then learning to cast the most effective known defence spell non-verbally," said Professor Lacount. His eyes were so dark that they appeared black and were cold and hard.

It was probably their most exhausting and difficult Defence class in all of their time at Hogwarts. By the end of the class most people had learned the 'partis temporus' spell verbally and non-verbally, but no one had mastered the spell to extinguish it. They had practiced on a carefully contained, bewitched jar of fiendfyre and Alice was the only person who had briefly managed to diminish the magical fire.

Professor Lacount was difficult to please and when he was pleased, he showed only indifference. His stance remained detached and cold and he only spoke to them when he was instructing or if they asked a question.

"Cheerful bloke, eh?" Remus had commented.

That evening, James walked silently with Sirius across the Quidditch pitch. There were no glorious colours in the sky nor was the sun shining brightly, half concealed by the horizon. The sky was just a plain, peaceful, progressively darkening blue.

"Want a fag?" asked Sirius, taking out a box of cigarettes.

James took one, lit it with his wand and raised it to his lips. He lay down on the grass with one arm behind his head, staring at the sky. Following suit, Sirius sat down and leaned backwards, stretching out his legs before crossing them. Personally, James thought that Dumbledore was mad making him Head boy. The only thing that burned anywhere near him was the cigarette between his teeth.

What about Sirius? There was more chance of him adopting a cat or shaving off his long dark hair then becoming 'immersed in the darkness'. Hadn't he already proved that he would rather burn in hell than follow Voldemort? For Merlin's sake, he had run away from his pureblood-mania family because he hated them for thinking they were superior just because they were 'the Noble House of Black". So why wasn't Sirius made Head boy? Just like James he smoked too much, drank fire whiskey underage, constantly hexed the slimy Slytherins and had spent more time in detention than actual classes.

But really, Remus was the logical choice. He had never smoked and only drank fire whiskey on certain occasions. Most people thought that Remus was a model student and that was partly true: he never missed an assignment, got good marks in every subject, never skipped class and had been a prefect. But for the other part, he swore more than any of them combined, performed the most powerful hexes when he wanted and didn't give a flying fu- well, he just didn't care in the slightest what others thought of him.

Because James knew that both him and Sirius _did_ care what others thought of them, despite their seemingly carelessness on that matter. As long as the world thought something along the lines of them being badass pranksters, that was what mattered. If people called them gits, prats, arrogant, selfish or blood-traitor, then all was well. But if someone thought that they were weak or cowardly then that was hitting a nerve. But for Remus, he knew that the only opinion that mattered was of those who really knew him.

James' thoughts flashed to Peter and laughed out loud at the thought of him being Head boy. Sirius gave him a queer look before returning to his cigarette. Even though Pete was just as good of a mate as Sirius or Remus, he couldn't imagine Peter being made Head boy. He just wasn't the leader sort. People didn't seem to respect him as much as the other three, though the other Marauders made sure that he was equally respected within their own group. He got nervous easily, was deathly afraid of blood and birds and was never the first person to throw a hex. But he was unwaveringly loyal to his friends. The day Peter chopped of one of his own body parts (too much blood), would be the day James believed that he would 'break underneath the pressure'.

(L&J)

"Marlene, if you hate divination so much why do you take it?" asked James as they walked to the final lesson of their first week. He was accompanied by Sirius, Remus, Peter, Dorcas and Marlene, who had been complaining about the class for the entire walk to the North Tower.

"Because all you have to do to pass is tell Professor Hollister that he'll live a long, healthy and rich life," said Marlene. "So you don't actually have to do any work in class and there's basically never homework."

"Then why do you hate it?" asked Remus, amused.

"Because," said Marlene exasperatedly. "We still have to listen to Hollister rambling on about stupid bloody divination in that smelly classroom."

"It's not that stupid," said Dorcas with a hint of defensiveness.

"Of course, it's not to you," said Sirius with a laugh. "You're the only one who could actually see anything other than fog in those stupid crystal balls."

"Actually, I could see lots of things in mine too," piped up Peter. "You see, I could see lots of lines… and according to Unfogging the Future, that meant that Sirius had dropped it five minutes earlier."

Everyone laughed. They had just reached the trapdoor which concealed the entrance to their classroom and one by one, they climbed up the ladder into the musty classroom.

"Good afternoon, boys and girls," said Professor Hollister eerily as they entered. He was a thin man, with a brown goatee mingled with an abundance of grey, and long hair. His robes were a faded maroon with a faux golden belt strapped around his middle, holding all sorts of trinkets, from a pack of cards to dangling tea cups.

"Today we will be continuing your work on interpreting smoke patterns. If you could please take out your copy of _Unfogging the Future_ and use chapter 2 as a guide," he said. He dislodged a shallow metal bowl which had been attached magically to his belt; James assumed he had charmed it so that it was much lighter or else it surely would have weighed down the left hand side of his belt. Professor Hollister then took a handful of dried leaves and twigs from a pouch and dropped them into the bowl. Then he lit the contents with his wand and began fanning the smouldering mass with a fan from his belt.

"You would do well to remember the types of fanning techniques we explored earlier this week," he said breezily. "Off you go now. I will be coming around and listening to your interpretations of the shapes you see in your smoke."

The sudden sound of clanking metal and the rustling of the debris could be heard as the students from each small table helped themselves to their materials. James wished that they had proper chairs instead of couches in Divination – that combined with the perfumed smell of their eccentric Professor's fire was making him especially drowsy.

Dorcas was the first one to have her fire smoking the best. She had shared with Marlene; Remus, always the patient one, had partnered with Peter and naturally, James had partnered with Sirius.

"Okay," said James to Sirius after their fire was smoking relatively well. "Tell me what you see and I'll interpret it."

"Right," said Sirius, stifling a yawn. "Um, well… I think that could have been a, um, tree? And… that was… yeah, definitely a cow. Actually, it looked a little like my mother."

James snorted. "Right. So a tree means… um, was it a deciduous or evergreen?"

"How the bloody hell would I know?"

"Right, let's go with… er, "Prosperity arrives after loss". Nice. And, er, a cow? "Beware an untrustworthy stranger"," said James.

"Okay, you're turn," said Sirius, grabbing _Unfogging the Future_ off James.

James peered closely into the fog that was swirling in front of him, but if truth be told he couldn't make out a damn thing. Every time he saw a gap that looked even remotely like a shape, it had vanished before he could identify it.

"Um, I see a broomstick and a quaffle, and the a golden trophy! Padfoot, we're gonna win the Quidditch Cup!" said James, grinning over at Sirius.

"Nice one, James," said Sirius with a grin. At that moment, Professor Hollister walked over to them.

"Mind telling me what you see, Mr Potter?" he asked vaguely.

"Sure thing, Professor," said James, quickly grabbing _Unfogging the Future_ off Sirius. He quickly glanced over some of the signs drawn out on the pages.

"I see… well, it's you Professor. And, that looks like a dolphin. And… a crown," said James, pretending to consult the textbook for the first time. "So Professor, from the looks of it "eternal happiness" and a "chance meeting with a person of importance" is coming your way!"

Professor Hollister beamed. "Excellent, Mr Potter! Very accurate interpretations of your fog there; I saw exactly the same shapes. Ms Meadowes?"

Dorcas turned from watching the boys and back to her own fog. James could see her eyes moving swiftly over the smoke, darting to random shapes appearing. When she spoke, she did not even need to consult her book – from the looks of it, she had it memorised.

"There's… an apple, which is symbolic of teaching and I think that's an open book, which means education and learning. Er, now I see a dementor, I think, which obviously represents fear and despair. Then there's a wand movement, but I don't know what spell it is. It's kind of like a zig-zag shape-" said Dorcas, but she was cut off by Professor Hollister extinguishing her smoke. He glared at her icily.

"That is quite enough, Miss Meadowes," he said coldly and went to examine another group's progress, shooting daggers at Dorcas.

The table of Gryffindors erupted into laughter.

"Merlin, did you see his face?" howled Sirius, clutching his stomach.

"Forget Hollister's face, did you see Doracas'?" laughed Marlene, wiping tears from the corner of her eyes. Dorcas' face was plastered in shock.

"See Dorcas, that's why you don't predict terrible things like that," said James, grinning at her.

"Yeah, you have to tell him he's going to be rich and famous, not that there's fear and despair coming his way," said Remus.

"I was just saying what I saw in the bloody smoke," mumbled Dorcas, glaring at them all. She was in a grumpy mood for the rest of the lesson.

(L&J)

The Gryffindor divination students galivanted back to Gryffindor tower, exuberant for the upcoming weekend. James was joking with Remus, ahead of the others who were still teasing Dorcas. Suddenly, a loud piercing scream sounded from ahead. James and Remus glanced at other in shock, drawing their wands from their robes.

They ran towards the sound down the corridor, turning the corner and coming to an abrupt halt as the scene unfolded before them. A second year Ravenclaw was backed up against a wall, a figure wrapped in white cloth advancing on her. It was stumbling towards her and its movements were somehow stiff; it had gleaming red eyes like rubies.

It was a mummy.

"I thought mummies were only in Egypt!" cursed James. "Relashio!"

The bandaged corpse fell to the floor, before heaving itself back up and continuing its pursuit of the terrified girl. She hadn't even drawn her wand.

"Confringo! Stupefy!" shouted Remus from beside James, but to no effect. The mummy continued stumbling towards the girl.

James, who was closer, jumped in front of the girl, firing jinxes and curses at the mummy randomly. The mummy stopped, as though confused. Then, with a loud _crack_ it turned into something else.

A taxidermized deer.

James did a double take and swore. It's glassy eyes were lifeless and James could tell it had an expression of fear and pain on its stuffed face. James averted his eyes; he now knew full well that it was a boggart, but he couldn't bring himself to look at the stuffed animal. He felt like he was staring at a stuffed body of a close friend, a friend that perhaps he understood the most.

He gritted his teeth and looked up at the boggart, which lay disguised as a dead deer sprawled on the ground.

"Riddikulus!" he shouted, staring determinedly at the boggart. With a _crack_ it had reformed itself into a hovering moon, now facing Remus.

Remus stared at the realistic orb in terror, his grip on his wand slackening as he began urgently stretching out his fingers and feeling along the length of his arms. James could tell he was making sure that he was still in his human form; Remus only ever saw the full moon right before he began the painful transformation into a werewolf.

But Remus recovered quickly, standing up straight and shouting, "Riddikulus!" The boggart vanished completely with a _crack_.

Sirius, Peter, Dorcas and Marlene were all standing slightly behind Remus, their wands all lowering simultaneously. The small Ravenclaw girl burst into tears, still shielded by James. Mentally weighing his options, he decided he would have been pretty shit scared if he'd faced his biggest fear in his second year. He knelt down beside her, taking her hand in his and giving it a gentle squeeze.

"Hey, it's okay. That was just a boggart. It wasn't real. Do you know what a boggart is?" he asked softly. The girl shook her head fervently. "Well, it's basically a creature that turns into your biggest fear. That mummy was pretty scary, wasn't it?"

The girl nodded furiously, staring up at James with wide eyes.

"Well, now you can go and tell all your friends that you fought a mummy! And if they don't believe you, I'll tell them," he said with a grin. "Come on, give us a smile… there we go! Do you want me to walk you back to your common room?"

The girl glanced fearfully down the long corridor and nodded slightly. James smiled and stood up. He glanced down at his friends, about to tell him that he'd catch up with them, but they were all staring at him. Marlene looked impressed, Dorcas looked like she was about to laugh, Peter looked even more confused then he usually did in Transfiguration and Sirius looked completely and utterly gobsmacked. His jaw had dropped, and his eyes were bulging with disbelief. James glanced at Remus, who was closer to him, and saw that he was smirking.

"Er, I'll just, um, yeah," said James, turning in the direction of Ravenclaw Tower with the little girl at his heels. But as he turned, he saw no other than Lily Evans, accompanied by Alice Prewett. He stopped, staring at her. Lily's brow was slightly furrowed, and she was biting her lip. Merlin, she was beautiful. Many strands of her red hair had escaped it's ponytail and were hanging down on either side of her face, contrasting with her shining green eyes…

"James," came a quiet voice from beside him and he felt someone tugging at his robes. He looked down and saw the Ravenclaw girl at his side. "I can walk by myself. It's not very far. Bye!" And she ran past Lily and Alice. James gave himself a mental shake.

"Bloody hell James, I could never have jumped in front of a mummy like that if I didn't know it was a boggart," said Alice with a smile. "Nice one."

Lily's brow furrowed further, and she gave a tiny nod.

"Right," said James, feeling uncomfortable for some reason; uneasy more like.

"You really calmed down that little girl," said Lily, offering him a small smile.

"Nah, she would've been alright," said James, the words seeming foreign to even him. When was he one to be modest? Especially when Lily Evans had almost _complimented_ him.

Lily looked even more surprised too. "Right. Um, Marlene, Dorcas? Are you coming to the library?"

The two girls nodded and walked towards Lily. Dorcas waggled her eyebrows at James as she passed and Marlene gave him a wink, a smirk on her face.

Could this year get any weirder?

* * *

Author's Note:

Let me know what you think! Let me know if anything is too cliche or if anything made you cringe, because I do noooooot want that :)

Please review!


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